Portable devices, such as mobile phones, tablet devices, communication devices, and other types of computing and electronic devices are ever-increasing in availability and in different configurations of features and hardware. Some of these type devices, such as mobile phones, are starting to be available as a user-configurable consumer product, both before and after purchase. For example, a user may select specific hardware components to configure a mobile phone, such as specifying display size, camera resolution, battery capacity, processor speed, and/or memory size. However, designing a mobile device for configurability opens up the possibility of users changing the hardware configuration and components after purchase, and causing potential damage.
Further, a user may replace original equipment hardware components with inferior components of smaller capacity, lower resolution, slower speed, etc., and then look to have a mobile phone replaced or swapped for a newer one that has the better components, which are comparable to the original device hardware configuration and components. This can have a direct impact on warranty and service costs for a manufacturer of the device. Further, particularly challenging is selectable memory that can be easily unplugged and swapped-out for a lower-capacity memory. More importantly, changing out the memory can replace or eliminate the entire boot image and hardware configuration setup information for a mobile device.